Merciless
by Eniguma
Summary: Ren has never been the kind of person to believe in such things as aliens. That is, until he found her. You are a UFO. Is that normal? A stunningly merciless fanfiction based on the song "Astral Domination".
1. Chapter 1: Is That Normal?

I walked calmly through the cool, dusky forest. As lost as I was, I was not afraid. I was never afraid of anything. Or, at least, that's what I liked to tell myself. I can't even remember the last time I felt afraid. My mental clock told me that the time had reached around half-past-five in the morning. Attempting to count the hours I had been wandering, I paused briefly in my tracks and rubbed the foliage from a particularly low branch between my forefinger and thumb, tracing over its frail veins with care.

"How did I even manage to get myself so lost?" I sighed. I gazed upon the darkening sapphire sky. "It's so unlike me to not know where to go," I observed plainly, thinking aloud to the empty space between the trees. I squinted off into the distance, and, upon sight of it, I gave a small tilt of my head and a quiet sound of inquiry. I took a few steps forward, leaning in a bit toward the object of my attention. A faint indescribable scent wafted toward me, carried by a gentle breeze. Feeling suddenly compelled, I broke into a sprint, not bothering to shield my face from the branches whipping toward me. After a short burst of speed, I broke into a clearing of tall grass, flattened back as if a large lead sphere had dropped onto it.

I was nearly dumbstruck. In the center of the field, a young woman lingered in the air as if gravity had simply forgotten her there. She was enveloped in a soft violet-fuchsia aura that seemed almost to emanate from her pale, unflawed skin. Curled up in a fetal position, she appeared to be dreaming. Evident waves of energy pulsed in waves from the girl, sending the grass around her wafting outward as if swayed by a gentle breeze. I was primarily startled by her likeness to myself. We could have been mistaken as twins. We had the same midnight-black tank top and black gloves, the same magenta shorts. Even her belt and boots were near identical to mine. We shared a strikingly similar hairstyle, our jet-black, medium-length hair flowing in perfect synchronicity with the soft pulses that left her body. The girl's serene, peacefully relaxed expression left me frozen where I stood. I could do little more than gape at the scene unfurled before me, overwhelmed by the stunning impossibility of it all.

I brought myself to take a cautious step forward. In a hypnotic state, I reached out my hand to her, my fingertips tingling in result of the electromagnetic waves she was emitting. Suddenly, the girl's eyes snapped open. Gasping and faltering a bit, I was horrified at the sight of my own expression reflecting back at me in her crystal-clear orbs.


	2. Chapter 2: Stunningly Merciless

_Her eyes,_ I thought, my own widening at the realization, _those are _my _eyes._ Her eyes were an exact replica of my own, deep violet eyes surrounding perfectly circular black pupils that were seemingly bursting with infinite wisdom. My feet paralyzed, I was unable to obey my urge to retreat. I tried to withdraw my extended arm, resulting only in a violent twitch. The girl's pupils immediately dilated to a pinpoint in response and her own hand shot up stiffly, clenched hand facing the ground. She glared at me menacingly. Her frightening expression was that of pure malice and cold murderous intent. I quickly yanked my hand away in surprise. I found this, too late, to be a mistake.

Her hand snapped open and she struck the air in front of my chest with her fingers curled back. I was hit with a force so powerful that I was thrown backward at least ten or twenty feet. I hit the ground with a heavy _thud_. The impact knocked the oxygen from my lungs. My spine bent in response to the sudden shock and I grasped at my chest, coughing and gasping, willing my breath to return to me. My entire body shook violently with the effort.

Light as a feather, the girl dropped neatly to the ground, her toes just barely brushing the ground. She strode weightlessly toward my crumpled figure, creeping forward on her toes elegantly, as if she were walking on air. Balancing elegantly, her heels never once touched the ground. As she approached and peered down at me, expressionless, I dared not move. Her lips parted and she uttered, slowly, a single, short syllable.

"Name."

I was alarmed at how powerful and sharp the sound was in contrast to her fragile and elegant appearance. In a hushed voice, I whispered my answer.

"Ren."

"Ren," the girl echoed, her voice softening a bit.

I nodded, struck silent upon hearing my own name on her lips. Bravely, a risked an inquiry.

"What _are_ you?"

She tilted her head, the corner of her mouth twitching slightly in what might have been the beginning of an eerie smile. After a soft, barely audible intake of breath, she whispered:

"UFO."


	3. Chapter 3: Swirling Confusion

I couldn't suppress the small, startled sound that escaped my lips. Then, I smirked and let out a cough-like scoff of a laugh at the notion. Another huge mistake. She reached down, her hand a blur as quick as lighting, and snatched me up by my shirt collar. Lifting me so close that her nose almost made contact with mine, UFO glared directly into my eyes, hate twinkling behind the sharp focus of her gaze. Letting her eyes bore into deeply into mine, she held me there for a while before throwing me to the ground as if I weighed no more than a feather pillow.

The girl kept her eyes locked on mine as she took a step back. Shooting her arms out beside her so that they were parallel to the ground, UFO threw her head back and a huge pulsar of energy exploded from deep within her, causing the tall grass surrounding her to be blown back forcefully. Simultaneously, a translucent, three-pieced wing consisting of triangular shards of crystallized magenta-colored light fanned out and hovered near her right shoulder.

I believed her now.

Pulling off her left glove, UFO reached out her palm, placing it a mere centimeter from my nose. Through crossed eyes, I saw a dark azure-violet mark stretching from the base of her thumb to the start of her pinkie. It depicted an image resembling her wing, a tri-point figure whose edges met at the center and was impaled through the middle of each tier by a thin ring of color.

I blinked, clearly receiving the message she was sending. She was, indeed, the real thing. UFO slid her elbow-length glove back on, withdrew her hand slowly, and helped me to my feet. I noted subconsciously that my height exceeded hers by only an inch or so. She tilted her head to the sky, gazing past the innumerable twinkling stars. She appeared to be intently observing something far beyond the Earth's atmosphere, something only perceptible to her far more advanced eyes.

After a while, UFO turned her gaze back to me and murmured in a low voice that was nearly inaudible, "I need you, Ren."

My cheeks flushed in response to her revelation. The way my name sounded, gentle and soothing as it slipped from her foreign tongue, had made me shudder slightly. It sent a strangely pleasant feeling of comfort through me.

But before I could respond, she stepped forward and placed a hand on my forehead. The feeling of her skin making contact with mine startled me; her skin was inhumanly cool and smooth. As the girl looked into my eyes, I realized that she hadn't blinked once since I'd first seen her open them. I remained quiet as she stared at me blankly. The hazy violet halo of light that lingered around UFO's body like a coat slowly drew tighter to her pale complexion. It seemed almost to flow like a liquid over the surface of her skin, cascading down the sides of her face and swirling down the length of her forearm. It eventually bunched together, gathering around her left wrist like a bracelet.

All at once, the girl lifted her free hand, drew back her left palm, and pressed her right hand over my eyes. An instant later, I felt the impact of the heel of her palm against my forehead, triggering a burst of growing pressure inside of my skull. As the sensation increased in intensity, I could feel my face contorting in pain. It felt as though my head were being ripped open, as if it were about to burst. I couldn't see. I couldn't hear. However, I could certainly feel.

Tears came to my eyes, hot and wet against the cold, dry skin of UFO's hand. I grit my teeth against the pain growing in my head and I could feel my entire body begin to convulse. My knees gave out involuntarily, but I never felt myself hit the ground.

I perceived the delayed feeling of UFO's body through the pain. I slowly became aware that she was cradling my wildly flailing body as a mother would to an injured child.

Unexpected, an intense burning sensation ripped through my left shoulder and tore into my right hand, drawing my attention away from the girl's presence and causing my back to arch. It increased, giving the illusion of my skin being set aflame. The pain, incomparable to anything I'd ever experienced, now spread through my entire body, was heightening, increasing to a seemingly impossible level. As it neared its devastating climax, I thought that surely I was going to die.

At that moment, everything stopped. The pain, the burning, the tremors, gone in an instant. My body gave out and I went limp, collapsing against UFO. She removed her hands slowly and let them rest in the grass on either side of her. As I gradually regained my senses, I noticed that I had fallen to my knees and clutched the front of UFO's tank top tightly in my trembling fists. I let myself cling to her, my cheek against her shoulder.

Blinking away tears, I glanced over at her face. The girl still wore the same emotionless, almost uncaring expression that had been glued to her face since she awoke from her reverie.

"W-what did you just do to me?" I weakly stammered, angered a bit by her insensitivity. Without a direct answer, UFO pulled off my glove, lifted up my right hand, flipped it over, and showed me my palm. To my horror, I now bore the same symbol that the girl wore on her opposing hand. However, mine was mirrored, the tips of the wings stretching outward toward the right rather than the left.

As I sat up, marveling, she stood and took a large step away from me. Turning her back to me, she cast a final glance to me over her shoulder and issued a single firm order:

"Wait."

About to protest, I blinked in confusion. When I opened my eyes, she was gone.


	4. Chapter 4: Our Promise Vanished

Nearly a year had passed since then. Eleven months and seventeen days, to be exact. During the first month or so of her absence, I visited the same spot where I had found her, every night, for three weeks. I was so full of hope, so sure in my anticipation that she would return to me. This was not the case. As I soon discovered, she had forsaken me. She had lied to my face. Or, rather, _I_ had been lying to _myself_ all along, because she had never existed. "UFO" was just a false figure in history, just a lie that my mind had manufactured with illusions. I knew, as the days passed and I lost hope that she would ever return. But I couldn't help thinking...

Would she?

I opened my eyes slowly, stirred awake from yet another dream of her. I glanced at my alarm clock. It was exactly five-thirty AM. I thought back to my reverie. Something wasn't right this time. There was something strange, something different, about the dream I had had that night. I hadn't seen her; I had just heard the girl's longing voice. Her words echoed in my ear and resounded, sending a quiet buzzing rippling through my thoughts. I lay on my side and gazed wistfully upon the full moon hanging vividly in the cosmos, thinking of the girl I had met so long ago.

I sighed and tossed myself back down heavily onto the couch, covering my eyes with the back of my forearm in order to shield my eyes from the bright moonlight flooding through the living room window. Fingers curled inward toward my palm, my other hand lay open beside me, the dreaded mark facing the ceiling.


	5. Chapter 5: Peeking Into A Secret

Just as I felt myself begin to fade back into sleep, a sound reverberated in my head, sending my jolting upright.

"_Ren_..."

The small, nearly inaudible, yet clearly recognizable voice came to me almost telepathically, sending my whole body into overdrive. A message. Every thread of doubt hanging inside me burst into pangs of hope. I threw myself off of the faded green cushions and viciously yanked my boots onto my feet. Immediately, without thinking, I ran to the front door and flung it open, nearly ripping it off its hinges. Bursting out onto the porch, I sped off into the night. I didn't need to think of what direction I was heading. The way to the clearing was permanently etched into my memory.

My mind was racing as I entered the forest, crashing through walls of bramble and thorns. At some point, I dove to the side in order to avoid running face first into a tree. Losing my footing, I practically rolled down a hill, tumbling through twigs that snagged my clothing, attempting to slow me down.

_Not gonna happen_, I thought with a smirk, stumbling to my feet and resuming my mad dash through the foliage. Finally, I reached my destination. Panting and exhausted, I fell forward onto the long, feathery blades of grass, feeling each one flatten against my cheek. My vision was clouded by small spots as my body threatened to shut down. I sat up, shaking them (along with multiple drops of sweat) away with a vigorous toss of my head.

Forcing myself to my feet, chest still heaving as I tried to catch my breath, I looked around frantically. My heart dropped like a stone. She was nowhere to be seen. I hung my head in despair, closing my eyes tightly.

"I should have known," I scolded myself, "I should have known she'd never -"

"Ren."

My thoughts were interrupted and I stopped in mid-sentence upon hearing the familiar voice whisper my name. I glanced up slowly to find the source of the sound. I tried to suppress my overflowing emotions of joy and relief.

"You came back," I noted levelly, my voice faltering a bit.

She tilted her head slightly, her forever-unchanging eyes locked on me, so intently studying my every move.

"Yes. Of course," she muttered, her voice lightly threaded with an undertone of indignity.

"I doubted you," I continued, trying to keep the pain and betrayal I felt inside from leaking into my voice, "But you came back."

"Of course," she repeated in a steely, flat voice, "why would I not?"

I became aware that she seemed to have expanded on her knowledge of the English, more appropriately, the _Earthling_, language since she had left me. I had no response to what she said, but it had caused a bit of guilt to originate inside me.

UFO took a deep breath, but her unblinking eyes didn't change a bit.

"There is not much time," she stated dreadfully.

I felt my stomach lurch upon her urgent declaration. Although I was unable to produce the sounds required to question her, she answered. Pointing at the starry night sky to the northwest, she simply said, "Look."

I followed her gesture, scanning the sky for anything out-of-order. It took me a minute or two to finally pick out an oddly bright red star that seemed to be bigger than the others – and, upon a closer look, it appeared to be growing steadily larger.

Alarmed, I turned my questioning gaze to UFO.

"A star," she stated vaguely, then elaborated, "A very massive one. It's coming closer. Coming fast."

As I tried to steady my racing thoughts, I figured out what she meant.

Morbidly, I uttered, "A meteor..."

She nodded. As I tried to take it all in, to make sense of things, the meteor drew ever closer by the second. I heard UFO's hushed whisper beside me.

"Try to stop it."


	6. Chapter 6: A Program Launches

My eyes widened; the notion was nothing short of absurd.

"Stop it?" I cried hopelessly. She remained silent. "UFO," I coaxed gently, "you know how to stop it, don't you? You need to tell me." Still, I couldn't get a response from her. Turning to her and looking her in the eye, I gently grabbed her by her thin, fragile shoulders. Desperately, I urged, "Please."

As I studied her expression, I picked up on a faint look of conflict playing across her facial features. At last, the girl answered me. I could tell that she knew it was not the response I would have liked to hear.

"Our lives," she placed gently, "may be lost."

I let go of her, taking a step back. Looking at her in shock, I weighed my options. I took a deep breath, preparing myself.

"I'm ready." I stated boldly, "I'll do it."

UFO nodded uncertainly in response. Just then, a loud shockwave split through the air, seeming to shake the very ground beneath our feet.

In perfect sync, we both looked up in horror at the now-visible meteor hurtling toward Earth. It was massive. Flaring brightly in contrast to the inky darkness of the sky, it was incased in a blanket of white-hot flame.

I felt UFO grasp my hand tightly in her own and heard a soft whisper meant only for my ears.

"Now, let's finish up."


	7. Chapter 7: During The Final Moments

She squeezed my hand so that our palms pressed together. The symbols we wore touched. The instant we made contact, I felt something tugging at the skin of my left shoulder. Turning my head just in time, I caught the phenomena out of the corner of my eye. A blur of light streaked the air in an arch as a triangle of light snapped into place above my shoulder. Two more followed. They expanded to an enormous size and my shoulder was pushed downward a bit by an invisible force. I adjusted my posture a bit to prevent myself from toppling over.

I glanced over at UFO and my jaw dropped in awe. Her wing had stretched out to an impossible size, nearly brushing the leaves of a nearby tree. She had a look of determination on her face as she caught my gaze powerfully. Feeling reassured by her presence, I mirrored her actions and we stretched our hands up to the sky, palms facing the oncoming meteor as if we intended to catch it.

Synchronized, a strong violet light encased us, outlining our connected figures, and intensified to a harsh glow. Hands still linked, we each set a foot behind us as if we were about to take off running. Our auras mixed and I felt her strength entering my body, empowering me. It was as if we were one.

Pulses of energy exploded off our skin, ripping through the air, and fell together into a meaningful rhythm. As the meteor approached, I could feel UFO's emotions. Fearlessly, we stood, hand in hand, as it drew menacingly nearer and nearer.

Finally it impacted. Smashing into a force field of energy just above the trees, an enormous bout of shock waves caused the entire planet to shake. It felt as if I had been hit directly with the giant mass of rock. I cried out, squeezing UFO's hand tighter, as we fought to hold it back. I began to feel light-headed as the life force was drained out of my body.

_I have to hold on_, I told myself. Although I felt close to falling to my knees, just knowing that someone was right there beside me filled me with the strength I needed to push on.

UFO, however, was not doing as well. She appeared strained, dripping with sweat. Her legs shook. Just then, I heard a sound similar to that of ice breaking under pressure. Targeting the source, I cried out in alarm.

"UFO, your wing!" I shouted over the splitting tremors coming from the meteor. Her wing was beginning to shatter like a pane of glass, cracks forming an intricate spider web design over each piece.

The girl looked at me sadly. To my complete shock, she smiled. Her face flooded with overwhelming emotion. It was bittersweet, tears staining her cheeks as she smiled for the first time since she was born.

It would also be her last.

"Ren," she spoke shakily, her voice brimming with mixed emotions, "thank you."

It all happened in a single moment as time seemed to slow. UFO released her hand, using it to shove me away, and raised her now-free palm to the sky. It was all followed by a blinding flash of light and a thunderous explosion. I was thrown back by a burst of energy, all of her power poured out in her final moments.

It took me a few minutes to recover. My ears were ringing and the flash had blinded me. As my hearing finally returned, followed by my vision, I looked around from the ground where I lay, too exhausted to move. I started to slip into unconsciousness.

UFO was gone.

All she left behind was a single shard of softly glowing light.


	8. Chapter 8: Epilogue

Even today, I still keep that shard close to me. I've tied a string around it and I now wear it around my neck, tucked under the collar of my shirt. I still bear the mark on my palm proudly, proof for myself that she was here. She _is_ here. The girl I liked to call UFO was still with me, forever etched into my memory. I still feel her presence every now and then, whenever I visit the site where we met. The site where we departed. I know she will never return. Although, I can't help but ask myself...

Could she?


End file.
